It is usual in constructing buildings to install a rain gutter at the top of selected sidewalls to carry rain water being discharged from the roof of the building to a downspout or other discharge facility via which the water is carried away. In the past, such gutters have been constructed from wood, or sheet metal such as galvanized steel, copper, aluminum, etc., or, more recently, plastic. Typically, such materials are prefabricated in standard lengths that are joined together at the installation site to form desired lengths. More recently, however, in the interests of minimizing leakage, improving the appearance of the finished installation, and reducing installation labor, alternative means have evolved to fabricate continuous gutters of desired total lengths. Such structures may be fabricated to order at a factory and shipped in the desired lengths. More commonly, they are roll-formed from strip stock into required lengths at the installation site, using portable equipment and rolls or coils of sheet metal as feed stock. This alternative is relatively expensive, in large part because of the high cost of the vehicle mounted roll-forming equipment that is used to produce the desired end product. More importantly, however, this approach effectively restricts the choice of materials that can be utilized to metals since the strip stock used must be susceptible to being easily shippable, while at the same time it must also be capable of being easily formed in the field into the desired end configurations which they will retain after having been so formed, preferably using known per se forming equipment. Plastic has several desirable properties, such as water tolerance and impermeability, durability, low maintenance with good appearance, resilience, and stability to the water, chemical and other exposures to which rain gutters are subjected. However, strip stock made from plastic has not been available in a form that is susceptible to being easily and economically shipped, and, at the same time, is capable of being formed at the installation site into long, inherently shape-stable lengths that are aesthetically acceptable as rain gutter shape. The desirability of using plastic materials in such applications, but their inability to date simultaneously to meet these criteria is demonstrated by their having been proposed in applications which are supplementary or ancillary to traditional rain gutters, but not as traditionally shaped, shape-stable, site-formable rain gutters per se. These include plastic sheet for installation in existing rigid gutters that have sprung leaks (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,645), and flexible bag-like structures that are not inherently shape stable, to be used in the place of traditional rain gutters (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,658). However, the prior art does not contemplate means for forming rain gutters cut to desired longer lengths from long lengths of plastic materials that is in a form that facilitates shipment while at the same time producing shape stable gutters which have an appearance acceptably like that of traditional gutter designs. Neither has it been possible to produce such structures from materials having these desired characteristics which can be readily cut and otherwise handled by the home owner or other "do it yourself" user.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide means for producing continuous plastic rain gutters.
Another object of this invention is to supply materials from which rain gutters satisfying the foregoing objective may be made in comparatively long, continuous lengths.
Yet another object of this invention is to supply stock for the fabrication of rain gutters satisfying one or more of the foregoing objectives in a configuration which makes it convenient to be shipped and handled.
Another object of this invention to supply rain gutters satisfying one or more of the foregoing objectives made from supply stock which, after having been released from the configuration in which it was shipped, resumes the desired configuration for a rain gutter that it had before being altered into its desired shipping configuration.
It is a further object of this invention to supply rain gutters satisfying one or more of the foregoing objectives which may be assembled and installed at the installation site.
Still another object of this invention is to supply rain gutters satisfying one or more of the foregoing objectives from stock which is susceptible to being supplied in roll form in long lengths.
Another object of this invention is to supply rain gutters from materials which facilitate assembly and installation by persons who are comparatively unskilled technically.